Career
Hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop
Welcome guests and seat them.
$31,200
Median pay
+3.4%
Job growth, 2025–35
107,100
Openings a year
No formal educational credential
Typical education
None required
Typical time after high school
Here's what you actually need to know.
The work
What people in this job do
- Provide guests with menus.
- Greet guests and seat them at tables or in waiting areas.
- Maintain contact with kitchen staff, management, serving staff, and customers to ensure that dining details are handled properly and customers' concerns are addressed.
- Assign patrons to tables suitable for their needs and according to rotation so that servers receive an appropriate number of seatings.
- Speak with patrons to ensure satisfaction with food and service, to respond to complaints, or to make conversation.
The outlook
How the forecast changed this year
The deeper question
What kind of person does this path ask you to become?
What this work centers on
O*NET interest profile, scored 1–7.
The work
Do you want most of your days spent on people & care, then persuasion & leadership?
Responsibility
Are you willing to be the one responsible for this?
“Provide guests with menus.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Active Listening, Service Orientation, Speaking, Social Perceptiveness.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
No degree beyond high school, though short-term on-the-job training is typical, for a median of $31,200 a year and 107,100 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- NO MATCHCIP 99.9999
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Waiters and Waitresses$35,230 · +2.0%
- Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers$33,980 · +5.3%
- Food Servers, Nonrestaurant$35,360 · +4.5%
- Fast Food and Counter Workers$31,200 · +5.8%
- Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks$35,070 · +1.8%
Ask anything about this career.
“Would this make sense if I don't want to sit at a desk all day?” Answers will come from the sources on this page, with citations. Coming soon.
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Sources
- BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34 (archived), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- O*NET 31.0 Database (August 2026), National Center for O*NET Development / U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 Crosswalk, NCES and BLS. Retrieved 2026-10-01.